• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

need advice on lighting, flow, ferts, co2

Dan-CR4

Member
Joined
5 Dec 2011
Messages
132
Location
Mitcham, Surrey, UK
I have had fish for around 4 years now and although I have tried and failed many times in that time. Had problems with BBA, Green dust algae. I decided I needed to change stuff around, over the past few I have bought new filters to replace my APS 1000ef filters and started to use my Co2 again. So now im ready to give it another try. as the saying goes try and try again. Im still fighting a little bit of BBA but its no where near as bad as it was.

I am also now doing 50% water changes every 4 days, instead of every 7.

My setup :

ND Aquatics aquarium 41"x24"x17.5" (266 litres)
4x 39w T5 tubes.
2x Eheim 2073 External Filters.
1x Hydor Koralia 900
300w inline heater (on filter 1)
Up Inline Diffuser (on filter 2)
FE Co2 setup (running 2.4 bps)
Caribsea Eco-Complete black Substrate.

Lighting:I now have my lighting period at 2x 39w turn on at 2pm and turn off at 9pm. the other 2x 39w turn on at 4pm and turn off at 8pm. (so I got 4x 39w running between 4pm and 8pm). The Co2 comes on at 1pm and goes off at 7.30pm.

Ferts:
I am dosing the tank with 25ml a week with the all in one solution from james planted tank (DIY TPN+ (3)).
What do you think of my setup, is the lighting period long enough?
My ferts im unsure of, as I am doing 50% water changes every 4 days, do I need to add the ferts every 4 days after a water change or do as said and keep that to once a week?

any tips and ideas to get me on the right track would be appreciated.
 
Hi dan, sounds like a nice set up. Everything seems to be ok but id personally add the ferts on a daily basis rather than in one go on water change day and maybe have your co2 come on 2 hours prior to lights on depending on what colour your drop checker is at the start of the photo period

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2
 
Quickly looking at the figures (160Watts over 70 US gallons) gives 2.2Watt/gal which is in high tech and algae farm/plant vaporisation territory.

Thus...
- Seriously reduce your lighting, remove two tubes is a good start and reduce lighting period. Or else you will have an algae farm until things settle down.
- Not convinced you have enough ferts to cope with that level of CO2 and lighting. Look at use EI dosing, which is daily dosing.
- Your filters are rated only 1000l/hr, for high tech you will need x10 flow of tanks volume, so 2600l/hr in your case. I assume this is what the Koralia is for.
- You are only injecting CO2 only via one filter, how are you ensuring that the CO2 gets all over the tank, not just that filter outlet ? Have you got drop checkers ?
- Not too sure why you are changing water so often ?

In summary
1. Go high tech 100%, better CO2 distribution, better fert dosing, weekly water changes.
2. Go low tech, lot lot lower light, can still use CO2 at lower doses, lower dose ferts and less often water changes.

Link below on high tech planted tank.
Setting up a “higher” tech planted tank | UK Aquatic Plant Society
 
Thanks for the replies.

id personally add the ferts on a daily basis rather than in one go on water change day

Thats one of my concerns, I have got all the stuff for doing the ei method, do u think I should change to that?

- Your filters are rated only 1000l/hr, for high tech you will need x10 flow of tanks volume, so 2600l/hr in your case. I assume this is what the Koralia is for.

- You are only injecting CO2 only via one filter, how are you ensuring that the CO2 gets all over the tank, not just that filter outlet ? Have you got drop checkers ?

- Not too sure why you are changing water so often ?

Yes did have cheap 2000 lph powerhead but the fish hated it and it was big and ugly so wanted something smaller that the fish could live with. I got two drop checkers, one at each end of the tank and both are green when lights come on but go to lime green a couple of hours later and stay like that til the lights go off.

At the moment I got the eheim spray bars at each end of the tank the green ones you get with the filter, (on the sidewalls/glass) of which I got one pointing straight ahead so it makes a little ripple on the top of the water, and the spray bar with the co2 is pointing down more into the tank. I got a fine mist of co2 and it looks like its getting all round the tank and both drop checkers are the same colour.

I have got a homemade spray bar in clear plastic/acrylic that goes the length of the tank that I used to use with the APS filter but since having the eheims I cannot use it at the moment as I need to get a 90 degree elbow connector so I can use it.

So do u think I should turn the co2 on earlier so the green is more lighter when lights come on?
 
Thats one of my concerns, I have got all the stuff for doing the ei method, do u think I should change to that?
Yes with that level and time of light & CO2 you really should be dosing EI method.
At the moment I got the eheim spray bars at each end of the tank the green ones you get with the filter, (on the sidewalls/glass) of which I got one pointing straight ahead so it makes a little ripple on the top of the water, and the spray bar with the co2 is pointing down more into the tank. I got a fine mist of co2 and it looks like its getting all round the tank and both drop checkers are the same colour.
Most people position the spray back at the back top of the tank facing forward, so CO2'ed water moves across the top of the tank, down the front and across the plants. However that is not Gospel, you say both drop checkers are green, so you might have achieved decent CO2 distribution. You just need to see if the plants agree with what you drop checker are indicating ie if you get an algae explosion at one end of the tank then CO2 distribution is not working as expected.
So do u think I should turn the co2 on earlier so the green is more lighter when lights come on?
2 hours before light on is a "normal" time for CO2, but all tanks are different.

Your CO2 appears OK then, I would spend my time either seriously reducing the light with the level of ferts you have or just reduce the light and dose EI.

When all settled in with your level of CO2 and ferts, start increasing the lighting. I started my 180l tank with only 50W of T8's with reflectors bent round to reduce light, initially for only 4 hours (maybe 3, can't remember) a day. After I think 6 weeks, put reflectors back into normal position and over next couple of months upped the hours on to my present 9 hours. At no point did I suffer any algae (other than slight BBA).
 
thanks for the reply Ian. I am going to do a water change today, then make it every week as tuesday is a good day for me :) I will reduce the lighting as you say and slowly increase the lighting.

I have Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate, Magnesium Sulphate & Chelated trace elements. is this all I need to start EI, I went on a website calculator and it is saying


Dry Dose Method:-
(See below for dosing with stock solutions)

(Note! You may not need Magnesium Sulphate if you are in a hard water area)
Day 1 50% Water Change and:-

  • Add 3.9 g Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
  • Add 1.4 g Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
  • Add 9.3 g Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4)

Day 2

  • TNC Trace

Day 3

  • Add 3.9 g Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
  • Add 1.4 g Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
  • Add 9.3 g Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4)

Day 4

  • TNC Trace

Day 5

  • Add 3.9 g Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
  • Add 1.4 g Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
  • Add 9.3 g Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4)

Day 6 & 7

  • Rest

Anyone give me advice if the above dosing would be a good to get me started? or am I heading into a whole lot of trouble? o_O
 
Anyone give me advice if the above dosing would be a good to get me started? or am I heading into a whole lot of trouble? o_O
No idea on values, see what works for you.

I initially dosed as here Ei Starter Kit - Starter Kits - Dry Chemicals - Fertilisers but have now moved to peristaltic pump dosing DIY dual peristaltic dosing pump with alternate switching. | UK Aquatic Plant Society from premixed 1litre containers.

I also upped the "strength" a tad (1 1/2 times) as I noticed when more plants had appeared growth slowed.

Again excess nutrient doesn't matter (other than slight cost) as you are providing light as the growth limiter and "resetting" the nutrient levels once a week during water changes (and getting rid of plant waste).
 
Anyone give me advice if the above dosing would be a good to get me started? or am I heading into a whole lot of trouble?
You're headed for trouble if you insist on measuring things out to the nearest 10th of a gram. That will get old fast.
Just round to the nearest teaspoon and call it good. Accuracy is completely irrelevant in nutrient dosing. You only get into trouble when you don't dose enough. That is the basic premise of EI.
That means 1 teaspoon KNO4, 1/2 teaspoon KH2PO4 and 1/2 teaspoon Trace mix. That will greatly simplify your life.

As Ian mentions, evaluate the plants response and make adjustments from there.

Please review the EI article in the Tutorials section of the forum and read all the other articles there while you're at it.

Cheers,
 
thanks for the replies, I have now sorted me spray bar so it runs the length of the back wall, so will see how the flow and co2 distribution is over the next few days. doing a bit of a re-scape as well today, never really managed anything nice before, think I will start a journal and hopefully I will get some advice along the way.
 
Well a couple of weeks on and it seems that all the diatoms have gone, the green on the plants are really starting to show now and they are looking healthy. I have added a few more plants, namely Staurogyne Repens, Hydracoytle Japan, Christmass Moss & an Echinodorus Red Devil.

The Staurogyne Repens was not doing so well for the first week, but have now started to see new leafs appearing. The Hydracoytle Japan is doing quite well so far. The christmas moss & Red Devil have only been in a few days but so far all looks ok. I have upped the lighting now to 5 hours, i am going to slowly increase the lighting period over the next few months and keep a close eye on what the plants are doing to make sure that the diatoms or BBA dont try to fight there way back. Guess the saying goes, slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.;)
 
A few of the leaves on the Staurogyne Repens are a yellow colour, Do I need to increase or decrease anything.

I have osmocote tabs in the substrate and I am also dosing with EI macro & trace soultions as below, Also injecting co2 with the drop checkers both showing green at both ends of the tank, the lights : 2x 39w come on at 4.30pm and go off at 7.30pm, my second set of 2x39w come one at 6.30pm and go off at 9.30pm, so for 1 hour I am running 4x39w the other 4 hours its 2x39w, I was running them all for longer but since decreasing the lighting period I have got rid of my diatoms, all other plants are doing really well now and the tank overall looks a lot better.

Macro
  • 15g of Potassium Nitrate (KNO3.)
  • 5.8g of Monopotassium Phospate (KH2PO4.)
  • 37g of Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4.)
Trace Solution
  • 3.9g Chelated Trace
I dose 125ml of the Macro Solution on days 1,3 & 5 and 125ml of the Trace Solution on Days 2 & 4. and rest for 2 days then start the week again after 50%, the Staurogyne Repens have been in just over a week and having got new growth already but as I say a few of the leaves are a yellow colour.

Im pleased so far how the tank has improved since I started this dosing regime, plus I cut my lights down to 5 hours now, Just worried about the yellow leaves that im getting on the Staurogyne Repens.
 
Back
Top